Long Time no Blog!!!

Wow....has it really been over a month since my last post?  I guess I have been a busy woman.  I had so much fun doing the Bead Soup Blog Hop, and now I am getting ready for the Messy Studio Hop.  You will all get to see where the magic happens.  HA HA~  I always seem to start out with a more organized space and it somehow turns into the Blob that ate my house.

So, since you were last here I got 2 new puppies.  Yes, I got talked into 2 puppies by a certain boy and my husband.  They are beautiful Chows, a brother and sister.  The girl is Cynder Ella and she is black and the boy is MuShu Pork and he is a cream.  Guess now you want to see pictures...

Cynder is named after a character in the Skylander Game and MuShu was the dragon in Mulan.   The Pork come in because he is a little (not so little now) piggy when it comes to food.  They have been a handful!

The very next week my husband Terry had to have a wrist surgery called a carpectomy.  He was a crazy cinder block breaking martial artist in his younger years and unfortunately he is suffering for his excess now.  The ligament that held in the bones was like the elastic in an old ladies underwear....ALLL stretched out.  They took out 3 bones and the ligament and he has been in a splint for over a month now.  He worked from home, but since I am not used to having someone here working I wasn't able to pound on metal and torch stuff like I usually do.

Lucky for me 2 of my bonus kids came to help out their Pops during their Spring Break.  Logan and Dutch, two of my husband grandsons.  They mowed, cleaned gutters and did pretty much anything we asked.  The next week my son Justin was on Spring Break and the next week is what I came here to write about!

NEW YORK CITY and Philly Bead Fest!

So, this was my view as we drove into the city on Friday the 13th! Thanks to my new friend Heather Marston of CSW Designs for driving the bead van into the city from Lancaster PA.  She also has an Etsy Shop HeHe Beads.  We met on the Painting with Fire Ning and have been chatting for over a year.  She had been trying to talk me into coming for Bead Fest and the NYC bead buying trip was a bonus.  Then she added a super secret bonus that Barbara Lewis of Painting with Fire would be going with us.  How could I resist!

We picked up a cast of characters along the way into the city.  Barbara and her husband Jim are just a delight.  They hugged me like they had known me forever!  Heather drove like she was a native and I navigated along with the GPS.  We parked in a garage near our first stop CJS.  There is no way to describe this place!  It is wholesale only, so bring your tax id. 

The owner Carl and his lovely daughter Elyse. He took us on a tour and then said "don't mess anything up".  That was funny..I don't care who you are!

Here are some pictures of what you might see.

 Finally here is the whole crew at the end of this part of our shopping spree

We are all smiling because of all the bargains we got.

Here are  a few pictures of my stash

And this isn't all of it!

The next stop was York Beads...Czech Glass heaven! I could have spent a much longer time there, but we had a schedule to follow. Here is a picture of the beads

Then on to Tinsel Trading Company a Ribbon Boutique and a whole lot of other stuff.  Yet another place to spend the day in.  While we were there a courier came in to pick up an order for Martha Stewart!  Yes THE Martha Stewart.

I picked up some beautiful ribbons here to use in my Garden Bracelet Series

We left and headed to Metalliferous another adventure in digging treasure.  Just remember to write the number of items and cost on the plastic bags or they will send you back into the racks to do it!  LOL  they must have said that a million times while we were there.  But seriously, very great staff.  

The owner gave us a few more suggestions of places to go, but it was getting late.  We slid in sideways at Beads World.  They had a lot of everything...prices not as low as some of the other places but marvelous selection of beads and chains and gemstones.

 

We ended up in Times Square and bought some gifts for the kids and found a great restaurant for dinner.  Then there was some snoring in the back seat and I kept Heather company on the drive home.  We got back to her house exhausted but happy.  

We spent the next day in Lancaster walking up and down and checking out galleries and shops and even grabbed a whoopie pie at the farmers market.  The we headed to Philly to Bead Fest and dinner with Barbara and Jim and a few of the Painting with Fire crew.  We had a great time and Jim is already planning my trip to Florida to visit them in their new home.

I can't believe I am saying this...but I can't wait to do it all over again!